This introductory physical chemistry course examines the connections between molecular properties and the behavior of macroscopic chemical systems.

From the lesson

Module 5

This module is the most extensive in the course, so you may want to set aside a little extra time this week to address all of the material. We will encounter the First Law of Thermodynamics and discuss the nature of internal energy, heat, and work. Especially, we will focus on internal energy as a state function and heat and work as path functions. We will examine how gases can do (or have done on them) pressure-volume (PV) work and how the nature of gas expansion (or compression) affects that work as well as possible heat transfer between the gas and its surroundings. We will examine the molecular level details of pressure that permit its derivation from the partition function. Finally, we will consider another state function, enthalpy, its associated constant pressure heat capacity, and their utilities in the context of making predictions of standard thermochemistries of reaction or phase change. Homework problems will provide you the opportunity to demonstrate mastery in the application of the above concepts.